Congress will unveil its fourth list of 45 candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections on Saturday. The list features party head Ajay Rai from Uttar Pradesh, running against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and the former Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh chief minister from Rajgarh.
Danish Ali is the party’s nominee for Amroha on the fourth list, while Imran Masood and Alok Mishra will run for office in Saharanpur and Kanpur, respectively.
Who is Ajay Rai?
1. Beginning his career with the RSS student wing ABVP, Ajay Rai won three consecutive elections for the UP legislative assembly from the Kolasla constituency on a BJP ticket between 1996 and 2007.
2. After being turned down for a Lok Sabha ticket, he quit the saffron camp and joined the Samajwadi Party.
3. After serving as a five-time MLA, Rai entered the Congress in 2012 and became victorious in the UP assembly elections, having won the Pindra seat. In 2017, Rai, running for Congress, lost the state election against Pindra.
4. Rai campaigned against Prime Minister Modi from the Varanasi parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019, but he was unsuccessful both times.
5. He succeeded Dalit politician Brijlal Khabri as the new head of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) in August 2023.
Lok Sabha elections: Beginning on April 19 and ending on June 1, there will be seven phases to the polls for the 543 parliamentary seats. On June 4, there will be a vote count. Phase 1 polling is scheduled for April 19, Phase 2 for April 26, Phase 3 for May 7, Phase 4 for May 13, Phase 5 for May 20, Phase 6 for May 25, and Phase 7 for June 1.
